“I’d like to get a lot of Saudi women,” says Ellen Lord, chief executive of the company’s Textron Systems arm, who is attending the Dubai Airshow.

Ms. Lord is one of an expanding cadre of senior female defense executives and has similar ambitions to recruit woman in the United Arab Emirates, having opened offices in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. She also plans to extend its domestic U.S. internship program overseas.

Some 35 percent of the unit’s sales are from outside the U.S., a level Ms. Lord aims to lift to 50 percent by 2015.

Textron’s conglomerate structure is sometimes questioned by analysts, with a portfolio that stretches through weaponry, Bell Helicopters, Cessna private aircraft and golf carts. With its airshow chalet perched at one end of the sprawling complex, an E-Z Go cart was proving every bit as valuable as smart weapons or cyber intelligence.